THE HIGH COURT in Northern Ireland has revealed that it has granted four super injunctions since 2007.
The Irish News reports that the Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice party asked the justice minister David Forde to provide the information in order to “stimulate some neccessary debate”. Allister said that the secrecy and lack of transparency that comes with “injunctive relief” is unhealthy.
MPs in Britain have already used parliamentary privilege to make some super injunctions public. Footballer Ryan Giggs was named by Liberal Democrat MP John Hemmings, who exposed the player’s alleged gagging order after he had already been identified by tens of thousands of Twitter users.
At the time Hemmings said it would be “impractical” to imprison all of the people who had tweeted about Giggs. However Attorney General Dominic Grieve has told the BBC that anyone who uses Twitter to publish sensitive information could be prosecuted for contempt of court and face a fine or even imprisonment.
Grieve said that anyone in England or Wales who used Twitter to breach privacy injunctions, or any newspaper that hinted about the people involved could face legal action.
Last month a court in California forced Twitter to hand over the details of a user who was accused of libeling South Tyneside Council in England in a tweet.
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